Thursday, November 21, 2013

Spongebob Cake


I made this cake for Latifs nephew who is a big fan of SpongeBob. I got the idea and how to from the internet and the one below is super easy where you bake a standard 13X9 rectangle cake and use the whole cake to draw your spongebob on. There is no carving and no difficult icing. Just a few simple steps and you have a cute little cake. All the kids went crazy over it and I was so happy to finally tackle a character cake.

You will need a lot of colors for icing so it is ideal to make a standard buttercream in white and then proceed to color it up. I decided to make a pineapple cream cheese frosting which I tinted yellow and used whipped cream for the remaining colors. I will go with plain frosting next time as it’s easier to apply and doesn’t melt when kept out!!

Supplies

1 13X9 inch rectangle cake (any flavor)
1 Batch White Buttercream - Divided (about 4 Cups - enough to crumb coat and frost an entire cake) Food colors – Yellow, Blue, Red, Pink, Black and Green.
1 Cup Chocolate Frosting (For the pants)
1 Cup Piping Gel (Divided)
2 Cadbury buttons for the eyes


1. Use the white buttercream to apply a thin crumb coat to the entire cake and refrigerate till set.
2. Take Two cups white buttercream in a bowl and tint it yellow. Remove cake from fridge and frost a little more than half the cake with yellow. Don’t worry about keeping the edges straight as it will be covered by the next layer.
3. Place 1 cup of the white buttercream in a piping bag and add a two inch wide strip directly below the yellow section.
4. Frost the remaining body with the chocolate frosting.
5. Take ½ Cup piping gel and tint it black. Alternately you can use buttercream if you don’t get the gel. 6. Place the piping gel in a piping bag fitted with a size 1 round tip. Start drawing the features of spongebob as shown in the picture. Start with two concentric circles for his eyes and eyelashes; then the nose and the mouth, teeth and tongue. Draw two inverted triangles for his collar and make his tie. I am a little challenged in the drawing department so I cut templates for his eyes and mouth and used them as a guide to draw the lines.
7. Tint 1 Cup buttercream red and use it to fill in the tie. (I didn’t have any white frosting left so I colored some sugar red and used that to fill the tie.)
8. Take the leftover red cream and add some chocolate frosting to it to make it maroon. Fill his mouth with this.
9. Tint the remaining piping gel blue (an aqua blue shade) and pipe it in his iris. Place the Cadbury buttons in the middle of the iris.
10. Take the piping bag with the white cream and change the tip to a size 3 round and fill his eyes and teeth.
11. You can also take some light green icing and make small circles around him as in the picture. I was not sure about it and so left it out.
12. You can give the whole cake a border to give it a finished look or leave it as is. I arranged a few MnM’s on the border.
13. Place the cake on a cake board and your SpongeBob is ready!

Happy Eating!

Friday, November 15, 2013

Oreo and Chocolate Pudding Trifle


If you have any Oreo loving friends and family, make this super easy trifle for them and watch them sigh with pure pleasure. A layer of crushed oreos is topped with chocolate pudding and another layer of whipped cream and cream cheese. Since everything comes from a box this recipe is good to have in your arsenal when you are doing a lot of cooking and dessert is the last thing on your mind. You can scale the quantity as you like to make as much or as little pudding you think you can eat. Or if you want the dessert to be your showstopper you can make everything from scratch (yes, the Oreos also). This trifle fed a lot of people and there was plenty leftover too.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 Boxes of Instant Chocolate Pudding Or Cookies n Cream flavor
4 Cups Cold Milk
2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
One 300 Gms Pack of Cream Cheese
½ Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Box Oreos (the big box approx 3lb 4.5 oz)

1. Place the heavy whipping cream in the bowl of a mixer and whip till you get stiff peaks. Using a spatula fold in the cream cheese and powdered sugar till mixed well. Place the cream mixture in the fridge.
2. Prepare the pudding according to package directions and place in fridge.
3. Arrange oreos along the circumference of the trifle bowl. I dipped them on one side in milk and this helped them stick to the glass. Break a few oreos in four pieces each. Place all the pieces on the bottom of the bowl and continue till they reach the height of the oreos on the side.
4. Remove the pudding and cream mixture from the fridge. Pour half the pudding mix on the oreos and smoothen with a spatula.
5. Pour half the cream mixture on the pudding layer and smoothen.
6. Repeat all the layers. Decorate as desired.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 2-3 hours atleast for the oreos to soften.
8. Serve chilled and enjoy!

Happy Eating!